In my last post I was referencing that the real and actual business case for AI is not in Search but in the enterprise market. I continue to believe in that and with all announcements that you can see from Microsoft or Google, this becomes more and more apparent. Interestingly though, it seems as if the current enterprise market players are not seeing it or understanding it. Yes, by now (finally) some of them are at least showing some progress in their blogs, but when you read these from Workday or SuccessFactors you see that they still don’t understand the size and impact of the AI wave that is coming their way.
AI will transform the way we do HR. I do not believe that there is any way this change and impact can be overestimated. Of course, you have the small AI applications as the current enterprise HR software companies bring to the market in the skills, talent or even recruiting space (see also Beamery). But these are not (different than promised) at the core of the solution, at the hart of the platform. These are edge cases where AI provides a very specific job. What I am talking about is an AI first HR platform that actually brings it all together and acts as a connected bridge.
HR Admin powered by AI
Let’s dive into the boring work of HR Administration. Not many people like it but it is still the foundation that not only HR is built on but the whole company. Show me any other enterprise software that is so interconnected and whose data is used to run more business processes than your HR Core Master Data and Organizational Data. You can’t find any. And so, the foundational HR Admin work continues to be at the center and heart of everything we do in HR. But it is still today very transactional and manual. Of course, there have been many improvements over the years and also automation is continuing to help, but a real revolution will only happen with AI. What if instead of a Shared Service Center AI will take care of all transactions. The complexity of 85%+ of all transactions is low to medium and the decision trees are very much rule based to a certain extend. Build an HCM software with AI at its true core and you can eliminate more than 90% of the admin work because AI will do it for you – seamless and in the background. Position movements, promotions, compensation changes, whatever there is, AI can operate it independently. And it won’t only do it for you if you trigger it, e.g. someone starts a promotion and the admin steps to follow are then taken on by the AI – no, with the vast knowledge of the organization, its rules and how it functions, AI can and will provide proactive guidance.
Your personalised AI HR Concierge
In the recent years we have more and more transformed the HR Business Partner role (and yes, I am on purpose talking about the role as I still see too many so-called Business Partners that continue to do HR Manager work) into a strategic, workforce guidance and consultative space. This role will continue to exist and add more and more value in our complex world – but also AI supported. However, the less strategic work can and will be completely transferred into AI. And with that, we are actually bringing back something that Managers and Employees mis, what we took from them: personalized services. AI can provide a personalized HR Concierge service to every employee in the company, including Managers. It will know you and your function and your career path and the typical company career paths, required skills, your existing skills, the gap, ways to close this gap, etc. – the knowledge is almost endless and with that knowledge, the HR Concierge can help any employee to find the right career path, the right training but also can help in many other situation – may it be a benefits question or may it be explaining your pay-slip. And it will free up human colleagues to be available for the more sensitive aspects of HR which will of course continue to exist. Our function will never be without human interaction!
And for Managers, the support will even be bigger. Managers will have an AI HR Manager that can help them manage the HR side of their team, make them aware of opportunities and gaps in their teams, make them aware of risks and issues, as well as help them get their teams into the future based on company strategy and objectives set. AI at the center of a reimagined HCM system will be so powerful and transformative that the current HCM systems and its capabilities will look like a calculator compared to 2023 Excel with Copilot – because this is what it will be, your HR Copilot.
Chief HR Officer 